Entries not meeting submission requirements as above will not be eligible.

Writers must be individual financial members of the SA Writers Centre.

Manuscripts must be submitted during the four week period. No early or late entries will be accepted.

You can only submit one manuscript (or version of) during the submission period.

During the submission period no individual writers may contact the SA Writers Centre, the Publisher or Hachette Australia to seek information about the progress of their submission.

Manuscripts submitted for consideration in the SAHMP must be:

complete

not a first draft (please edit thoroughly)

fiction, non fiction or young adult fiction (sorry no poetry, children’s books or other are eligible).

Selection of the manuscript will be at the discretion of the Publisher and no discussion shall be entered into by the unsuccessful applicants.

Selection of a manuscript for the SAHMP is not a guarantee of publication.

Hachette reserves the right to consider the selected manuscript for publication within twelve weeks of delivery of a new draft of the manuscript, but gives no guarantee of publication.

The work must not be previously published in any format.

The work must not be under consideration by another publisher.

Writers who are not selected for a mentorship are eligible to resubmit the same work in following years.

All submissions must be submitted electronically.

The form of the mentorship:

The Publisher will work with the selected writer.

The exact form of the mentorship will vary according to the needs of the writer and the manuscript, but will include structural notes provided by the Publisher and telephone or Skype calls as appropriate to a maximum of five phone calls, as well as correspondence by email.

The mentorship will conclude either when the writer feels that they do not need further assistance or the Publisher feels that they are unable to be of further assistance, with either party to be advised in writing of the end of the mentorship.

The Publisher will not be available to give advice to the selected writer after the conclusion of the mentorship, unless so agreed between the Publisher and the writer.

The Publisher will not discuss the content of the mentorship with anyone other than the selected writer.

About Sophie:Sophie Hamley has worked in the print and online publishing industries as a bookseller, editor, writer, content producer, web and interactive TV producer. She was a literary agent from 2006 until late 2014, during which time she was President of the Australian Literary Agents’ Association and a member of the Book Industry Collaborative Council. She now works as a publisher with her wonderful colleagues at Hachette Australia.

After the success of last year’s Adelaide Pitch Conference – where out of the 43 attendees, 27 people were asked by major Australian publishers to submit their manuscript (most to more than one publisher) – we will be running it again towards the end of 2016.But don’t leave it until the last minute – begin your preparation now! Below you will find workshops that will help you perfect your manuscript so it can be at its best when the time comes.If you would like to be notified of details when released, please sign up here: Pitch Conference. [EVENT_ESPRESSO_CATEGORY event_category_id="pitch-conference-prep-1459914048"]

Mentorship Application Form

You will also need to identify at least one (maximum of three) goals for your mentorship and agree to the full terms and conditions.

Process

SA Writers Centre will connect you with a mentor with four weeks of application. Mentorship fees must be paid in advance in full to the Centre.

What to expect

Mentorship hours are billed for actual time spent, in 15 minute (minimum) increments. This includes all contact with the mentee including phone/Skype/IM conversations, emails, reading and feedback time and face to face meetings.Note this means that if you send four emails to your mentor, that will equate to one hour of mentorship time.The mentor and mentee will develop a shared timetable and plan, including identified goals, and will keep a weekly record that tracks progress towards goals and time spent by the mentor.Any questions or difficulties will be resolved by the SA Writers Centre.

Rates

Mentorships are offered in five hour blocks.5 hours $55010 hours $88020 hours $1650You can add additional blocks upon completion of initial blocks if you and your mentor agree that this would be beneficial for your work.[gravityform id="15" title="true" description="true"]

Exquisite I

Exquisite I is a collaborative project for culturally and linguistically diverse young people to engage with and reflect on how they construct their identity. The participants will illustrate and narrate their experiences through story and the written word, capturing a diverse range of languages and literacies.

The participants will collaborate and embark on a creative journey that explores notions of identity and how young people from diverse backgrounds construct themselves within home, family, school, work and wider culture. The project will reflect the complexities of how young people’s identities are formed, and will create a snapshot of a diverse, contemporary South Australia.

There will also be the production of both hard copy and digital learning resources: a professionally produced anthology (in hard copy and ebook), and a podcast, incorporating recordings of the stories. The anthology of their work will be released early 2016.

Exquisite I is informed by the successful “Writing Places” project SA Writers Centre delivered with Adelaide High School in 2014, through which we produced the anthology #radelaide. SA Writers Centre has a strong record in supporting multicultural writers, currently running projects for young ATSI writers, young writers with disability and are supporting Tongues, a local literary journal for multilingual writing.

The program began in September and the students have been introduced to a combination of prose, poetry and performance. Please contact us if you are a student and would like to attend.

Workshop facilitators:

Manal Younus is a South Australian based freelance storyteller. As a Muslim with Eritrean origins living in Australia, the young writer and spoken word artist uses her poetry to both discover and strengthen her identity as well as to spark thought and discussions amongst those around her. Since making the Australian Poetry Slam National Finals in 2013, Manal no longer competes in slams but has gone on to perform around the country including at The Sydney Opera House, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne’s Voices in the Attic and the National Young Writer’s Festival. In 2015, Manal released her first book of poetry called ‘Reap’.

As an active member of grassroots community organising, performance is only a fraction of the work Manal is interested in doing. Manal facilitates writing and performance workshops with young people to help develop their own voices. With the support of the SA Writers Centre, Manal has launched Soul Lounge, a unique monthly poetry and open mic night!

This program is run with the support of Department for Education and Child Development.